CFRC in the News

On July 2, 2015, the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre (UCFRC) announced a research partnership with the Lumos Foundation founded by the author J.K. Rowling. Lumos is a renowned international foundation working to end the institutionalisation of children around the world by transforming the education, health and social care systems toward family-based care and/or foster care.

The forthcoming same sex marriage referendum relates to adults’ human right to marry whom they chose regardless of sexual orientation. Divisive negative issues raised in relation to children and their welfare are being used to deflect from the core question in the referendum. The position of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at NUI Galway and its patron is that the most essential factor for a child or adolescent is that they have a loving, consistent and caring parent or parents who cater for their physical, intellectual, emotional, and social needs. This point of view is supported by a wealth of well-respected international research.

Mairead McGuinness MEP was unable to attend an event in Brussels for the Responding to Child to Parent Violence (RCPV) Project but was able to meet with the project team on the 20th February in Galway. Eileen Lauster suggested meeting with Mairead in the ILAS to talk about the project and also to present on the work and aims of the Institute.

A Galway based development charity marked it’s landmark 10th anniversary with an emotional and heartfelt birthday celebration at the city’s state of the art new Institute for Lifecourse and Society at NUIG, last month.

UNESCO Chairs, Professor Pat Dolan, UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement at NUI Galway and Professor Mark Brennan, UNESCO Chair in Community, Leadership, and Youth Development at Pennsylvania State University updated the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova on recent activities of a Global Network of UNESCO Chairs on Children, Youth and Community and planned engagement in the 9th UNESCO Youth Forum taking place in November 2015, as an integral part of the 38th session of the UNESCO General Conference.